written by marieann

I made this easy cute curtain to jazz up our new kitchen. I’ve been tardy on posting because I was swamped with graduation and then moving to my new city, San Francisco. I bought this expensive and beautiful silk fabric for a dress but I suck at custom fitting. So I had a few yards of this great fabric and I when we decided our kitchen was going to be black and white it was perfect!

Materials:
Fabric that is 2-3 times the length of your window width to treat

Tools:
Sewing machine

Instructions:
1. These curtains use a piece of fabric that is as long as the window as the fabric is wide. I chose this fabric with a border print so that it could run along the bottom of the curtain. So your curtains will only be 45″ or 60″ tall (a bit shorter though for the hems). This is why they work best as kitchen curtains that you want to act only as a valance. So you don’t have to do any cutting when you’ve purchased the fabric.
2. Hem the bottom edge (this is the long edge along your length of fabric). I did a double fold so that the raw edge was tucked in.
3. Hem the left and right edges (this is the short edges).
4. To make the ruffle along the top, fold the fabric down along the top with approximately 6″ of overlap. Sew along the raw edge.
5. Then sew another line above the one you made in step 4 that gives you enough width to thread your curtain rod thru. You are making a casing.
6. You’re all done! Thread thru the narrow casing and hang up. If you use a stiff fabric, the ruffle will stand up. If you use lightweight fabric like I did, it will flop over and make a rufflier top.

written by threadslinger

I have ridiculously short legs. It used to make buying jeans one of the most miserable experiences on the planet because even the shorts weren’t short enough. But, then I actually broke down and paid to get my jeans professionally hemmed and when they came back I did what all good crafters do and thought “hey I can do that myself.” So, with the next pair I hemmed them myself. Here is a super easy way you can do it too.

Materials needed

-Sewing machine
-Good Scissors
-Pins
-Good iron

Step One:

Put on your jeans and measure how you long you would like them to be and pin them. Don’t forget to be wearing shoes you want to wear with the jeans. This is only really important if you wear heels regularly like this shorty and want to make sure your jeans are the right length.

Step Two:

Carefully cut the bottom of your jeans off. This is the most terrifying part for me, especially if you just dropped 150 bones on the jeans. Eeeee.

Step Three:

Turn the jeans inside out and sew the bottom part of your jeans you just cut off to your jeans. Be sure to line up the seams.

Step Four:

Once your hem is complete turn the jeans back the right side out. Press the seam really well with an iron to avoid it flipping out when you wash them and woot there are your new hot appropriate length jeans.

written by marieann

I made this painted portrait for my bf’s mom a few years ago. She has a modern edgy style and she loved it. It’s much easier than it looks so I decided to give you a tutorial on how to do this.

Materials:
Posterboard
Paint

Tools:
Paintbrush
Computer w/Adobe Photoshop
Projector (either a teacher’s projector or a tv projector)
A good photograph of your subject that clearly shows the subject’s face

Instructions:
1. Open the image in Photoshop. Crop the photo so that it’s close on the subject’s face.
2. Go to Filter -> Artistic -> Blur.

3. Adjust the cutout settings until you get as blocky of image as you can while still clearly highlighting the features.

4. Click okay. Then go to Image -> Adjustments -> Color Balance

5. Adjust the color balance (you can do at the shadow, midtones, and highlight levels) until you like the color result that you have.

6. And your image is done! I only know how to use a tv projector so that’s how the instructions will proceed. But I think you could use a school teacher one too.

7. Connect your projector to your computer. Point the projector at the wall and move it around until your image fills the posterboard (tape the posterboard to the wall).

8. Trace the lines blocking the color splotches.

9. Paint — just like painting by numbers. Be sure to mix up a lot of a particular shade to be sure you have enough.

Here’s a WIP of me making the original painting…

written by marieann

I used the tutorial linked by this post to make this little crocheted mushroom. I think if I made it again, I would stuff the whole thing and not let it open (see below). But it was a really easy pattern to follow which means a lot because I am horrible at reading crochet patterns. I think the hedgehog is really cute but mine turned out too ugly to give away. I gave it to the kitties for a cat toy instead of giving it to my swap partner.

written by admin

I made this bow for a birthday present for my boyfriend. I wrapped his present in regular paper then painted the bow with acrylics afterwards. This is really useful if you want to mail a present to someone because there’s no risk of the bow being smashed. This is one of the most realistic paintings I’ve ever done and I’m not a good enough painter to explain to you how to do it so if you can’t paint, have at it.

written by admin

A reader requested that I design her a Ms Pacman block, in the style of my Mario quilt, so she could make a Ms Pacman quilt. I whipped this up with my Electric Quilting program and thought I’d share. Enjoy!

written by marieann

I have lots of bits and bobbins of ribbons and cording but I rarely used it because it was tangled and inaccessible. This is a quick and easy project — do it this afternoon!

Materials:
Cardboard scraps

Tools:
Scissors

Instructions:
1. Cut a piece of cardboard approximately 4″ x 8″ (this can vary).
2. Cut a slit near the end of the long end.
3. Stick one end of the ribbon in that slit then wrap around the cardboard.
4. This is my “clever” addition. Wrap another ribbon (cut slit, wrap) on the same piece of cardboard just below it. Repeat until the cardboard piece is full (with as many different ribbons that will fit).
5. Then, to sort these cardboard pieces, I put them into shallow boxes to keep them together organized.

written by marieann

I picked up this great Asian silk dress at the thrift store for $5 but I knew that I wouldn’t really wear it as such. It was really form fitting and not really my style. So I made this skirt that is just the right amount of Asian print and yet is much more wearable. I’ve got it paired with a long black shirt and it looks great.

Materials:
Form fitting dress you’d like to make into a skirt (Asian dresses work great)
1″ elastic (longer than your waist; don’t cut it until you’ve sized it in step 6)

Tools:
Sewing machine
Scissors
Safety pin (large)

Instructions:
1. Try the dress on and find your natural waist line. You can find this by bending sideways. The place that your side folds is your waistline.
2. Mark this point with a pin on either side of your body.
3. Remove the dress and lay it really flat and even. Line up the hem to be sure you’re going to cut straight across. Cut a line straight across the dress 2 1/2″ above the pins.
4. Fold the top of the skirt over 1 1/2″. Fold the bottom half inch under (to make a casing). Pin in place and sew along the bottom of the casing with a tiny seam. Leave a tiny hole (about 1 1/2″ in the casing to put your elastic thru).
5. Pin the safety pin thru one end of the elastic and push it thru your hole. Feeding the safety pin thru the casing, work it all the way around.
6. When you’ve gotten the elastic all the way thru, try the skirt on. Pull the elastic as tight as needed to hold up the skirt. Sew the ends of the elastic together with a zig zag stitch. Sew the hole you left in step 4 closed.

I found that the silk was difficult to work with so the band looks a bit wonky but it doesn’t matter as I would always wear a long shirt that covers up the waistband anyway.

written by marieann

I promise that this hasn’t become a quilting blog but I’ve been drawn to the craft the last few months. Maybe it’s the winter and the need for a million blankets? Well, I made this as per the requests of my very New York friend who’s having a baby. Her taste is very sophisticated and she didn’t want her baby girl to spoil that with her pink and traditional baby prints. So she requested this quilt. I designed it with my Electric Quilting software and I decided to write up a full download tutorial because this pattern is unique. Please do not download unless you are interested in actually making this quilt as it’s a large file (it includes photos). The tutorial includes info on how much fabric you need as well as cutting and piecing instructions.

* EDIT: Tracy contacted me indicating that she was the original designer of the bento box pattern. I was unaware of the scope of copyright law in this area. I did my own unique color arrangement to create the dual patterns and created my own open source pattern. After she submitted a nice request (followed up by an intent to contact her lawyer!), I removed the pattern for my version of the bento. I am not sure of the scope of her exclusive rights, but you can copyright a quilt. It was an open source pattern and I gained nothing from sharing it so it’s down.

EDIT 2: Readers, please don’t bash her decision. I am not sure that the copyright would hold up in court, but I don’t want to challenge it anyway. As a courtesy, I wanted to take down as she was very nice and she is making a life off her creativity, which is a difficult and scary thing to do. My mom sold patterns for a few years when I was a child and I saw how much effort went into making/distributing it. So, do know that I’m not just taking it down because I’m scared/intimidated, she was very nice and I respect her request and business.

written by marieann

I loved this Michael Miller panel, called Escape. I made two quilts based on the color pallette in them. I love how modern and fresh they are — they remind me of something you could buy in Urban Outfitteres (for like $200!). The polka dot one (below) is actually entire Michael Miller fabrics. The former is includes fabrics from lots of different lines including some Amy Butler and Valerie Wells prints.

If you’d like to see more photos of these quilts (including the backing, which is this great owl print), they are located here.

*I’m sorry for the posting hiatus; there is still a lot in the hopper, I’ve just been distracted with the cruise and then my new sewing machine (more on that later!)